Tag: Red State Council

Kinds of Direct Action

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Following up on yesterday’s post, restoring sanity to our society is the only way to avoid the collapse that the Left is busily hastening.  And as far as I can see the only strategy for accomplishing this is direct action.  So far, the only examples are those actions being taken by a few red state legislatures and governors who have begun to pass laws to prevent the worst of the corruption from damaging their children.  Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida has been especially busy preventing schools from exposing young children to sexual indoctrination about things like homosexuality and transgenderism.  But he hasn’t been alone.  Other states, especially in the south have been active in setting up a framework of laws to prevent the progressives from establishing their propaganda in the schools and the social welfare institutions.

And in the colleges DeSantis has also taken the lead in rooting out the pernicious DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs that replace merit with quota and affirmative action criteria.  In fact, he has mandated that the whole Florida State University eliminate both the policy and the hierarchy of DEI.  Hopefully that leads to a great number of people in this discipline becoming unemployed and hopefully unemployable.

But much more needs to be done to begin to roll back the damage that has been done.  From my point of view the quickest way of dealing with the problem is for the states to provide vouchers with which, parents can pay for alternatives to the public schools for their children’s education.  This way the present generation can get in front of the problem.

So, what is this saying about the path forward?  What needs to happen is these states and their citizens have to work together to provide parents with pathways to raise their children to be normal people.  This will not save everyone.  Parents are going to have to wake up to what’s going on.  They have to be aware of what the public schools are like.  They have to educate themselves about what alternatives exist for their children’s education.  And they have to start paying attention to who runs their communities and states.  None of this is an automatic solution to the problems.  It’s a beginning.

What it should be is a starting point for further action.  Beyond the schools are the other community resources.  The hollowed-out churches need to be replaced.  How that is done I don’t know.  But it has to be done somehow.  Our communities are ghosts.  There is no actual community.  All of the institutions, the Town Hall, the Library, the Churches are run by leftists and we let them take over.  We were all too busy.

Now the rest of this is wish fulfillment.  Will these red states stand up to the inevitable encroachment from the federal government when they attempt to counteract these red state initiatives?  That’s the gazillion dollar question.  So far nothing has done more than slightly dent any of the progressive incursions that the Left has initiated against our lives.  But maybe there has finally been a reaction to something so horrific that it will stick.  Transgendering children may be that thing.  And if the people rallying around to oppose this atrocity play their cards right maybe a lasting and effective campaign can be initiated.

The Scandinavian countries and the UK have reversed course on pediatric transgender treatment.  The claims that “affirming” therapies produced better outcomes for children are false.  At best the studies are inconclusive and newer evidence points to the dangers of hormonal and surgical interventions.  As more and more studies are done, I’m sure what will come out is that these therapies are valueless and actually demonstrably harmful to the long term physical and mental well-being of these children.

Some direct action is finally being taken by politicians and regular people to protect their families from the most dangerous policies of the Left.  What is needed now is leadership to grow these individual efforts into a coalition that can build a large consensus and then take it forward to provide more protection for families and hopefully build communities around these families.

24 GOP Governors Message Solidarity With Abbott in Texas

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24 GOP Governors Message Solidarity with Abbott in Texas

So, I was watching the Big Lebowski tonight.  That movie has an odd effect on me.  It’s a comic tour de force.  It piles absurdity on absurdity with nothing but bizarre characters as far as the eye can see.  And I find most of the humor highly entertaining.  But it always sort of depresses me too.  I guess it’s because even in their comedies the Coen Brothers are always laughing at us.  And it’s not a friendly laugh.  They’re dramatizing the meaninglessness of human existence.  Well, at least that’s how it affects me.

Then I read this.

The full list is:

Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Mike Dunleavy (AK), Governor Sarah Sanders (AR), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Gov. Kim Reynolds (IA), Governor Brad Little (ID), Governor Eric Holcomb (IN), Governor Jeff Landry (LA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Mike Parson (MO), Governor Greg Gianforte (MT), Governor Jim Pillen (NE), Governor Joe Lombardo (NV), Governor Chris Sununu (NH), Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Governor Mike DeWine (OH), Governor Kevin Stitt (OK), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), Governor Kristi Noem (SD), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Spencer Cox (UT), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VA), Governor Jim Justice (WV), and Governor Mark Gordon (WY).  The only abstainers were Republican governors in Vermont and Nevada.  But those aren’t conservative states so there’s no surprise here.

So, this is a mildly encouraging sign.  Maybe the Republicans are starting to realize they have an enormous amount of leverage because of the panic about getting money for Ukraine.  They should demand that Biden deport ten million illegal aliens before he gets a penny.  But what are the odds of the House holding out for that?  Probably pretty slim.

But I do see some good coming of the Republican governors finding common ground.  And of course, I fantasize that they’ll go beyond a letter of support.  What they should do is coordinate a plan to not only close the border but to eject the illegals whenever they show up in the red states.  This is another case of federal law that is being ignored by the federal government.  They could announce to the country that they are going to arrest all illegals and give them a chance to hand themselves over and instead get free airfare back to their homes.

This is the basis of what I was calling the Red State Council.  The red states coordinating to circumvent the sabotage of the federal government and protect each other by enforcing the Constitution within their own borders.  So there’s the tie-in to the Big Lebowski.  It’s filled with nihilism, both explicit and implied.  And that is what the federal government stands for and enforces.  But luckily for us we don’t have to have a Coen Brothers moral to our story.  It is possible to end up with a happily ever afterward story line.  All we need is a bunch of red state governors who decide that twenty five states is enough to stand their ground and refuse to be stampeded on by Biden and his minions.  Well, I guess I should get around to doing a review of the movie.  After all, the dude abides.

What Happens If 2024 is Rigged Too?

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Suppose 2024 is a carbon copy of 2020.  At 11:30 pm, with Donald Trump ahead by comfortable margins, the counting stops in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia and after several days of slow-motion vote counting, Biden wins these states and the presidency.

This is the Dissident Right’s checkmate scenario; a permanent Democrat lock on the federal government.  No matter how lousy the Left’s handling of the economy and the border and foreign affairs Republicans will be shut out of the White House and Congress and eventually through attrition the Supreme Court too.  Checkmate.

The question to answer is what, if anything, will the Right do about it?

And here is another case of no one knows for sure.  Could it all just go forward, not with a bang but a whimper?  Certainly, it could.  Maybe even, it’s likely it would.  And that would seal the fate of the “constitutional republic” for at least a generation and maybe for good.  So that’s the worst case.  What else is there?

I think the best-case scenario is a Conservative Convention.  I don’t mean a Republican convention.  In fact, I would hope the attendees would studiously ignore their party affiliation and concentrate on their status as normal Americans.  I think every state should select delegates and these men should open up negotiations on forming a Red State Council.  This would be an organization to allow the Red States to coordinate, integrate and amplify the efforts of these states to neutralize the deleterious effects of the federal government and at the same time build alternative institutions both private and public to advance the interests and nurture the citizens they represent.

For the normal Americans trapped in the Blue States this Council would provide an indirect leadership.  Commercial support by these Blue State inhabitants for any businesses fostered by the Council would be mutually beneficial for both consumers and corporations.  And these refugees can benefit from such resources as conservative colleges where their children can get a sane education.

None of these things will happen easily or quickly, which is an even more important reason that they need to begin immediately after the futility of federal elections has been proven once and for all.  It will only be by beginning the process of forging a separate identity that any sense of hope will appear.  This identity should be based on a refusal to surrender our rights to freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, freedom of association, freedom of religion and the rest of the Bill of Rights.  By choosing these rights as the basis for our identity we demonstrate that we are the direct successors of the American republic and therefore the legitimate heirs to its heritage.  This will provide us with the basis for our efforts to form new institutions.

For instance, we should sponsor the creation of communication and media companies that will respect freedom of speech and the fourth amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

We can’t have phone companies and e-mail services allowing the government to spy on Americans anymore.  The only way this can be enforced is if the Red States enforce these restrictions themselves.

And the Red States will have to police illegal immigration themselves.  Expelling the immigrants either back to their countries of origin or else to “sanctuary” blue states could be part of this policy.

And there are a thousand things from affirmative action to sexual deviancy that needs to be addressed by a conservative coalition.  But the only way anything will be achieved is by making a start.  Until we hear that such a gathering has been arranged, we live without hope of regaining our rights and freedoms.  And the day that should begin is the day after the 2024 election is stolen.

Wake Up from the 2024 Dream

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Donald Trump has proven that even on hostile turf, like a CNN “town hall” he can more than hold his own.  In fact, he made them look like the chumps they are.  The petulant moderator came off as a middle school hall monitor almost constantly hectoring the former president with subjective corrections to almost everything Trump asserted.  And the audience was in Trump’s pocket.  They cheered his punchlines and took his part in the argument.

So, candidate Trump has a solid base of Republican voters who want him to be the nominee.  And sure, why shouldn’t he be the candidate.  But I think a lot of folks no longer think we’re going to get anywhere by electing politicians to spend four years in Washington DC being undermined by the FBI, the Justice Department and the rest of the Deep State.

We’ve just seen this movie.  Even if by some miracle Donald Trump wins the 2024 election and ends up in the White House, what’s going to be different?  How does he make the FBI follow his orders?  How does he get the Defense Department to end their wars?  When he ordered the Pentagon to end the Afghanistan war, they ignored him.  Just flat out ignored him.

Going into that charade again without a plan for making the outcome different is a complete waste of time we don’t have.  Things are already at the breaking point in large sections of the population.  Dooming people to waiting four more years or even two years is a death sentence.

If Trump and DeSantis and the rest of the Republican leaders had half a brain they’d have already sat down together and begun putting together an agenda that concentrated on what could be done right now on the state and local level.  They should have a plan that included initiatives that could be implemented over the next year and a half and then two separate plans to be implemented after that.  One plan would be used if the Republicans took back the White House and the other one would be used if they didn’t.  It’s as simple as that.

What I’m saying is that conservative politics can no longer be pursued as if it’s a gentleman’s pastime that’s dusted off every four years and then put back on the shelf if the Democrats win.  If we don’t start pushing back right now and wherever it can be done it won’t matter whether we “win the next one.”  Because there won’t be anyone left who will care.  Another four years of new Americans will replace four years of Americans.  The tipping point has already been reached.

So, Trump, DeSantis and the rest of you “leaders,” wake up!  Sit down together and start planning for the big picture.  The clock is ticking and your window of opportunity is closing.  Fighting each other to be the losing candidate in 2024 is a singularly meaningless waste of time.  Sure, one of you can be the candidate.  But it should be a unity government that represents a consensus on what the platform must be.  And those idiots in the House and Senate must be dope slapped until they cooperate with the plans and preparations that the state leaders decide upon.

Anyway, that’s my read on all this.

Tucker’s New Gig

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I saw this article about Tucker Carlson “floating the idea of hosting a Republican primary forum.”  And I thought about all the ways such an idea could go right and wrong.  But what I thought would be much more productive would be for him to assemble a panel of those on the Right who aren’t fake and allow them to speak to us about what they can and can’t do to make things better; straight talk.

Think about it.  Carlson knows all these people.  He knows who the phonies are, people like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence.  He knows things about the power structure in Washington that we don’t.  He could easily get all of the candidates with the possible exception of Donald Trump to accept an invitation.  And without a doubt he could come up with an agenda that would be illuminating for both the attendees and the public.

I’d say this could be a series of discussions where the first few episodes should completely steer clear of the 2024 election.  Instead, what is needed is an honest discussion of all the things that are pushing the country down the dark road it’s on.  Congressmen and senators could talk honestly about the barriers that prevent honest change from happening.  They could talk candidly about the way lobbyists control the direction and specifics of legislation.  Past officeholders from the executive branch could shine a light on exactly who runs the federal bureaucracy.  And I mean name names.  And they could provide suggestions on how that mess could be repaired.  The ultimate coup would be if Carlson could convince Trump to speak candidly about the way that the federal government stonewalled his attempts to enact his various policy directives.  Then he could give his ideas on how this interference could be prevented in the future.

And even more important, I’d like to see a bunch of Republican governors sitting down together; Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Bill Lee, even a waffler like Kristi Noem could be there.  They truly are the most powerful office holders on our side.  Carlson could ask them to speak to the problems they face and also what things they see as opportunities.  And he could ask them how they plan to help their constituents escape the effects of federal government interference in their lives.  And how they plan to coordinate their efforts.

I wouldn’t be surprised if most of these officeholders refused to get involved in such a project.  Even politicians who aren’t out and out crooks like McConnell and Graham don’t want to stick their necks out and get put under the spotlight.  After all, speaking the truth is treason in Washington D.C.  But with so much of the Republican electorate now solidly red-pilled to what’s really going on in Washington it is in the interest of these politicians to convince their constituencies that they aren’t just part of the problem.  Because a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that voting in Republicans is a useless activity.  If that idea gets too ingrained even red state senators and congressmen may find themselves out on their ears.

So, this is just a lot of hot air.  But Carlson could provide a public service (and make an enormous amount of money) if he can convince some of these conservative lawmakers to push back the curtain and let us know the ugly truth about our government.  The truth is a remarkably valuable commodity.  Providing the gory details to the American public would be a public service of enormous consequence.

Think of it as one of those livestream podcasts where the viewers get to ask questions.  Carlson could take the top five questions based on number of questioners and at the end of the show have his guests answer them.

And I guess he should host a 2024 debate show.  I’d be interested in his questions and his refereeing of the candidates.  It would be hell of a lot better than what the mainstream media does every four years.

Maybe the First Stirrings of a Red State Council?

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Just the first little inkling of what a real red state cooperation could look like.  Coordinating efforts to resist and fight back against the Leftist agenda, both in government and elsewhere.  It’s a start anyway.

 

What Would a Red State Council Look Like?

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There are twenty-two US states that have a Republican governor along with a legislature that has a Republican majority in both houses.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming

Looking geographically, you can see how this grouping makes a lot of sense.  New Hampshire is of course hopeless and honestly, a New England Republican is just a cheap Democrat in my book.  Strategically trying to win over Kentucky and Kansas would do wonders for consolidating our proto-confederation geographically.

So that was kind of fun.  But what practical effects could be made of having these states align their laws and actions?  Well, if you think about it, plenty!  What if by July all these states passed laws outlawing everything transgender?  No more kids being mutilated or drugged.  No more weirdos going into the wrong bathrooms.  No more men playing in women’s sports.  No more Drag Queen Story Time. No more nothing.

But that’s just a thumb in the eye of Lefty.  Really it has more to do with forcing corporations to stop hiring illegal aliens and eliminating woke culture from the schools and colleges and forcing the blue cities to maintain law and order.  Maybe it means coordinating things like road building and infrastructure projects that the federal government has reneged on and providing alternatives to some of the federal agencies that are needed but which have become corrupt.

They could license doctors, lawyers and engineers to take the place of the AMA, ABA and other credentialing organizations that have gone woke.  Basically they would begin the process of bypassing a lot of the federal bureaucracy that has been weaponized against the Red States.

And one of the biggest priorities would be a coordination on energy projects and policies.  The first item in the legislative agenda would be the dumping of all green programs and the wholehearted embrace of intelligent energy utilization.  Licensing nuclear power plants and the development of new energy sources should be strongly encouraged.

And in terms of membership, if this cooperation got going, the benefits of this kind of arrangement might lure a few more states along just because of the economic benefits it would provide.  I could imagine Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana coming aboard and possibly several others.

And all of this could be accomplished without any radical steps taken to distance the red and blue states.  By having the states negotiate the common legislative agenda it will be possible to optimize their ability to neutralize the federal agenda and prevent the feds from finding any weak links when they go after red state police forces and other vulnerable targets.

And most importantly, everything must be done in a way that points to the unconstitutionality of the federal laws and policies that this council is working to neutralize.  It must be clear that powers that the states are endowed with in the Constitution are the basis of the actions that these states are taking.  That in fact they are only protecting these rights against the predations of a runaway and unconstitutional federal bureaucracy that has as its object the destruction of states rights and the subjection of American citizens to an illegal alienation of their fundamental rights as Americans.

The fact that these states aren’t already thinking in these terms highlights the problem we are dealing with.  Americans have for generations believed that our government was by and large set up in a way that promoted the freedoms and prosperity that we have come to expect.  The truth is that those freedoms have been swept away by federal agencies that have aligned with the authoritarian left.  And by means of election fraud we can no longer expect the federal government to be accountable to the legitimate citizens of this country.  It’s time that those states that have managed to hold onto a semblance of sanity to combine their efforts and their resources to resist the destruction of the American way of life.

The clock is ticking.  Hang together or hang separately.

A Local Focal Friday

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I was listening to the Z-Man’s Friday podcast while exercising this morning.  Camera Girl informs me that he sounds exactly like our family doctor.  Since I only go for a check-up once a decade, I cannot verify that this is true but she is a very observant and intelligent (if annoying) woman.

Today his topic was about how the dysgenic aspects of our culture were leading to a low IQ population, sort of the Idiocracy theorem.  There was a good bit of discussion about how as society devolves local power centers like local politicians (or call them warlords) and institutions that have control over specific functions or technologies (e.g., Silicon Valley) would begin usurping the place of the federal government as it imploded due to rank incompetence.

It was a very interesting discussion and it pointed to a mechanism for transitioning from the current stalemated political situation to a future where local politics and power structures could evolve to benefit a local concentration of competent and cooperative people.  Of course, it still depends on the crumbling of our society as the moving force to allow this untethering and we’re certainly not there yet.  Even though the beginnings of collapse can be seen in the increase in the frequency of airplane crashes, train derailments (not to mention naval vessels colliding) and the breakdown in law and order in the cities, still, we’re probably decades away from the official fall of the empire.

As I’ve many times stated we won’t have hit bottom until the incidences of cannibalism become too prevalent to make the newspapers (or whatever they call the news purveyors at that point in time).  So, this scenario that the Z-Man is postulating is still in the somewhat distant future.  But it most definitely makes me think that the idea of a Red State pushing for more autonomy is the correct model for the Right to embrace.  And I think that the idea of a Council of Red States is more and more the most effective way for people on the right to affect change.

I was reading an article by Salena Zito about what Ron DeSantis is up to down in Florida.  She talks about the fact that both Biden and Trump are bashing DeSantis because he’s the likely contender that both of them would face.  But then she spends most of the article going over the things he’s doing in Florida.  And even though it’s apparent that she’s supportive of his run for president, what strikes me is that the things he’s doing for his state would be impossible for a president to do without both a veto-proof senate and the house  under his control.

So once again, it makes me think that local control of people’s lives becomes more useful than battling for control of the dysfunctional federal government.  If DeSantis is actually able to enact Florida Digital Bill of Rights

he will be so far ahead of the rest of the country that the rest of us who toil under the yoke of internet tyranny will curse the fate that left us outside his benevolent rule.  Let’s face it, Florida is marching forward, throwing off the culture war shackles of the Left while the rest of us are being dragged backward in our Antifa and BLM controlled hellholes.

I think DeSantis should consider carefully whether he will have more power and more influence as the leader of a group of Red State governors rather than as an embattled Republican president.  And that’s not taking anything away from him as a presidential candidate.  If somehow he ends up as the candidate, I’ll vote for him certainly.  But how he gets there without antagonizing the millions of Trump-only voters is not clear to me.  Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis should be sitting down and talking about this election.  Even if they hate each other, even if both of them want to win above all else, they should look at all the options and decide what they can do to maximize the good outcomes from their campaigns.  In fact, what they should do is agree that whichever wins the other will throw full support to him.  And also offer the vice-presidential spot to his opponent first.  That would be putting country in front of ego.  Although I don’t think DeSantis should leave Florida to be a vice president.  He is so much more effective now; it would be a waste.  And I doubt Trump would accept the largely ceremonial duties of a Veep.  He craves a larger role.

So, these are the things I’ve been thinking about today.  I try to stitch together the various bits of information and find commonalities and synergies.  And maybe it’s all just part of my echo chamber.  But today I heard things that give me a little hope for the future.  And for a Friday that’s pretty good.